Anna is Coming Home - May 15, 2011

JR, the kids, and I arrived at the hospital at 9am Saturday morning. We knew that it would take a few hours before Anna would be discharged.  A photographer came into Anna's room to take some pictures while we waited.  The photographer took a beautiful picture of Anna smiling and wearing a big pink headband and a diaper.  Hopefully, I will be able to post that picture in a few days.

After the pictures were taken, the doctors and nurses came into Anna's room for her final rounding session. The conversation was upbeat and happy. We talked about Anna's progress and how there were times when they thought Anna would never come out of the hospital. One of the nurses told us that Anna was a miracle. The Attending Physician discharged Anna over the computer and Nurse Michelle told us that we needed to hook Anna up to her home monitors because it was time to go. Everyone congratulated us and then left the room. 

When the door to Anna's room closed, there was silence.  JR and I looked at each other because we had never hooked her up to the monitors before.  I suppose it would have helped if JR and I read the monitor manual before we came to the hospital.  I looked at JR and said, "Did you bring the monitor handbook?"  He looked at me and said, "No, I thought you did."  Great. Now what do we do.  What if the hospital won't let us go home because we don't know how to work the monitors.  I heard JR mumbling, "No doctor, we can't leave yet.  Dumb and Dumber can't figure out how to work the monitors." I laughed.  It took us awhile, but JR and I fumbled through it somehow.  We managed to figure out how to turn the machines on and we placed the sensors in the right places without alarms going off.  Whew.

It was time to say our final goodbyes.  We had been saying goodbye to the nursing staff and doctors for the past few days. Many of the hospital staff asked in disbelief, "Is Anna really leaving?" It was hard not to get a little teary eyed.  After all, they were part of our family for the past several months.  Anna is with us because of the loving care that she received from them.  JR and I cannot thank them enough.

Before we left Airplane, we said our final goodbye to Nurse Michelle.  Anna will miss Nurse Michelle the most.  She was a second mommy to Anna. 

It was surreal to finally take the "proud parent walk" down the hallway and out of the NICU with Anna. However,  the walk was not as smooth as I had pictured it. We basically formed a conga line and were connected by wires.  A nurse was at the front of the line holding Anna in her baby carrier,  I was walking behind the nurse carrying the oxygen tank, JR was walking behind me carrying the pulse oximeter and apnea monitor, and Kara and Shawn were behind JR carrying the rest of the bags.  We shuffled through the hall, down the elevator, and to the minivan.

We loaded into the minivan carefully making sure that we did not disconnect any of the wires.  Once we were settled in, we drove out of the parking ramp and into the rain. We left the place that we had called our second home for the past several months.  I looked at the hospital as we drove away.  This was the only time I was happy to see the OSF Saint Francis Medical Center sign in my rear view mirror.

The ride back home was quiet.  It must have been registering in our minds that we were coming home with a newborn with special needs.  We haven't had a baby in the house for nearly ten years.....Goodbye sleep.  It's amazing to think back on our experience.  My thoughts were on overload. Finally, she was coming home.

On February 5, 2011, Anna flew in to the Peoria NICU by helicopter weighing 1 lb and 7.5oz and she was clinging to life.  Exactly 100 days later on May 15, 2011, Anna left the NICU by minivan weighing 5 lbs 4oz and she was happy and content.